Whenever someone tells me about their intention to end their life, I respond:
Staying alive is the only cogent argument for staying alive.
We stay alive simply because the alternative is NOT being and existence is always richer in potential than non-existence.
Life is full of pain and frustration. But pain and frustration are not CAUSES. They just ARE – the same way that we ARE.
If suicide appeals to you, I hope you reconsider your decision.
And to those who contemplate suicide while claiming to have faith in the afterlife (whatever that may be), I add:
You claim to have faith, but you sound like you have lost ALL faith.
People confuse purpose with meaning.
However devoid of goals it may be, your life is meaningful because the universe would not be the same without you.
When you choose to live rather than to die, you co-create the world. Your death renders it instantly other.
Had you not been born, reality for every atom and person and entity would have been radically different.
Purpose and action and accomplishments are the icing on the cake of your existence.
But your existence alone suffices to steer everyone and everything in another direction and towards an alternative destiny.
You are truly the co-author of the universe. What could be more significant than this?
On his deathbed, Voltaire was asked by a priest to renounce the Devil. “It is not the time to make new enemies!”- he famously responded. He remained authentic to his last breath.
Self-actualization is the sole engine of meaning in life: making a difference in an otherwise indifferent universe.
So, why do I rail against consumerism and sex positivity which are ostensibly about helping us to realize our potential?
Because both actually limit our promise and constrict our lives. Both these ideologies are death cults: they objectify people and humanize objects.
Consumerism and sex positivity also suppress our free will by presenting fake choices between rigidly dictated alternatives and by penalizing nonconformity.
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Stop being NPC crab-mentality-preventor. Suicide is unassailable human rights. If you respect life you need LOVE – Legalization Of Voluntary Euthanasia
I am a physician, not a psychiatrist, and I am confused about this point of diagnosis. Considering the path of damage, destruction, and mental illness left in the wake of narcissistic abuse, and also the perpetuation of cycles of abuse–is this not more than just 'being an asshole' considering the pathological patterns? I mean, someone has cancer regardless of whether they know it or acknowledge it. The cancer can be diagnosed at autopsy if they refuse to see anyone while alive. Is it because NPD cannot yet be seen at autopsy that we are foregoing a more traditional/conventional way of diagnosis?
All what You saying – is why I wont to make a suicide. I dont wont to be. To egsist. To feel. I have Faith in nothing. I just wont to be memory, be the past.. Don't open eyes in the morning – that's my dream.
Finish your life's journey, finish the course of enlightening and elevating your soul, finish your souls contract and souls journey. We are all here with you. Thank you professor Vaknin for bringing this to light, I've lost 3 people to suicide durring the pandemic. It is very important that we talk about these things.♥️
Thanknyou , Sam. I need thus words more than other.
Best video on suicide and why to try keep going that I have ever seen
I guess there's a difference between the nothingness of death and the nothingness of life,
be it that life is something we can control, he explains it. People now have freedom to have
different ideas of meaning and truth, it can go from the smallest, to the most ambitious thing,
so it gets very confusing, but I think gratitude is something that should be prioritized.
I love what you've said here. Thank you Professor. This is the kind of humanity we all need more of.
Thank you, Professor
I come back and listen at my lowest points – thanks for having the courage to face yourself and share yourself with others – may you some day face the reality of the many lives you’ve touched and helped through this thing we call life…thank you 💕
Fenomenalmente Presentado 👌
❤ Thank you, Sam. Indeed.
I'll be out of here myself soon-People mean well but the pain is too much for a lot of people out there and it turns out I'm one of those for whom life is too much.
If life is not worth it, why continue
…yes,it is about becoming…all in the Universe is 'becoming'at this very second….
And most New Age thinkers say the opposite: "Just Be, do not become anything'…
However Being implies movement in time…
Thank you for your humanness
You often say things that remind me of lines from Desiderata. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the poem.
Wowwwwww. Excellent. Thank you.
Realizing it's all a delusion is soul crushing. At worst, this reality is little more than a machine that extracts juice of pain and suffering. Not just US, litteraly all life. 😢
There is just nothing left of me what I can call a person. No emotions except pain, fear, sadness, no trust, relationships became all dangerous
listened twice so far. thank you!
Your opinion cannot be trusted, because you are completely biassed and you have alot to lose by promoting the opposite viewpoint. Also, of course you are happy and you like being alive, because your life is great, because you are a wealthy and well respected professor with high social status and probably a nice family and good freinds. For people who have none of what you have, and who dont have much prospect of achieving anything decent at all, and also they are sick and poor, life just really sucks, and death is logically an improvement.
I agree that the universe would be different without me. It would be a better place. Its easier to argue that Its better if all the cocreators of the world, are people who love life and who make a meaningful contribution to the world, so the rest should feel free to check out, and thereby improve the human race and save the natural environment from too many humans. I dont love life and I contribute nothing, create nothing, have nothing to offer. Dont you realize that overpopulation is the #1 crisis that the earth faces!? Its easy for you, to be your authentic self, and to courageously engage with life, because you are highly intelligent, skillful, wealthy, gainfully employed, well respected, liked, loved, high status, accomplished person, and proud of your accomplishments. If your authentic self was a coward, a simpleton, a loser, a failure, a loner and a creep, despised and shunned, you would be singing a different tune. Thanks for the pep talk, but it was unconvincing.
I would argue that you make the mistake of assuming that humans are a decent, respectable, worthwhile species, that is worth preserving. That is not true. In fact, humans are a corrupt, toxic, unsustainable species, that is killing the planet in a dozen differenct ways. The human species is uncooperative, uncontrolable, and irredeemable. We have triggered runaway greenhouse, in case you dont know. A better characterization than 'co-creators', would be 'co-destroyers.' Where is the value in being an authentic co-destroyer?!
One of the biggest reasons people who are considering taking their own life don’t follow through with it is a deep fear of death not being the end and therefore there may be consequences for taking your own life. But many are too scared or proud to ever admit this to anyone or even themselves. Which in itself doesn’t make any sense. Because if you’re even remotely open to the idea of the soul or intelligent design, or even simulation theory or any other idea which may mean death isn’t the end then that surely means life does have some deeper and bigger meaning.
This is one of the most inspirational and thought-provoking videos I've seen on YouTube.
Thank you so much for sharing this work 👏👏👏
Thank you so much. 🇧🇷
“Not the time to make new enemies” 😂
Thank you … amazing.
The absolute greatest thing about death is there is no afterlife. The fact that I don’t have to see or hear anyone or anything fills my heart with joy 🥲